Kominicki: A lesson in the origin of words, phrases

Egging someone on means to encourage them into action. The phrase is the result of what wordies call orthographic convergence. Translation: It has nothing to do with eggs.

The phrase comes originally from the Old Norse word eggja, which meant to incite. It arrived in English around 1500, when it was promptly converged orthographically into the existing word egg – the one with the shell – which had come up from the Old English aeg.

Which brings us, finally, to Plan B. There is continued debate among American and English etymologists about the origins of what we now consider the classic fall-back position. The Oxford English Dictionary credits American Civil War documents; other experts refer to a Church Congress meeting held in Cambridge in November 1861 that came up with two proposals to increase church taxes.

However, both references discuss only a Plan B. The first specific mention of a Plan A came from the 1867 Report of the U.S. Commissioners to the Paris Universal Exposition of that year.

In closing, a parting word of decided New York origin for the governor: